[Alberg30] Paint Prep Advice

[J Bergquist]

Roger-

You can buy polyester-based fairing compounds which are pre-thickened to 
the consistency of drywall mud. These work fine and are easier to mix 
and sand than epoxy. Have you ever gotten a catalog from Defender? 
(http://www.defender.com). They have all the composite stuff you want 
(cloth, tape, resin, filler, tools), and they're not wholesale, but 
they're pretty good prices.

Epoxy works fine as fairing compound. It can be thickened with any 
number of various things (I never thought of Coffee-mate, though...) 
it's more expensive and more difficult to use than polyester. It's also 
a better glue (because it's 100% solids, there is no shrinkage on cure, 
it is not styrenated so it doesn't stink, it is stronger than polyester 
and vinylester, it does not absorb water they way styrenated resins do, 
and it is just generally a better glue, but it is probably overkill for 
the vast majority of things you need to do on a polyester boat like the 
A30).

West system makes a chart of which thickener (ie. High density, low 
density, colloidal silica, microballoons, filleting blend, etc. ad 
nauseum) to use for which application. If you want to use it as wood 
filler, you can use wood flour as a thickener. You can buy this probably 
somewhere locally, but I know for sure that you can mailorder it from 
Chesapeake Light Craft (http://www.clcboats.com). It is ROUGHLY the 
color of wood, so it won't stick out as it might if it were WHITE for 
example.

I never tried autobody fairing compound, but if Gordon says it works, it 
probably does.

Good luck!

J Bergquist

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